The Symptomatic Surreal: Leonora Carrington

In 1939, at the outbreak of the Second World War, Carrington experienced a psychological crisis, and in August 1940 she was hospitalised for four months in Peña Castillo Sanatorium, Santander, under the supervision of Dr Luis Morales. She later described this period as ‘down below’, an experience which was, for her, like ‘being dead’. Yet rather than an end point, this psychic descent marked a period of profound inner transformation.

With little access to art materials during the war, Carrington worked in sketchbooks, creating a visual record of this troubled time. Told through her Santander sketchbook drawings from 1939 to 1941, prior to her permanent emigration to Mexico, this exhibition follows Carrington’s flight from Nazi occupied France to her hospitalisation in Francoist Spain, and her subsequent passage through Madrid and Lisbon before reaching New York. Reunited with her surrealist friends in exile, she entered an intensely creative period, painting, writing and participating in major surrealist exhibitions.

Exhibition organised by Faro Santander in collaboration with Freud Museum London, and curated by Vanessa Boni.

Leonora Carrington paintings. Discover Villa Pilar and Down Below

One of the great attractions of the exhibition is the first-ever public presentation of Villa Pilar, one of the most relevant works from the period Leonora Carrington spent in Santander, which has remained in the private sphere of Dr Morales's family for decades. Located thanks to the research carried out by the Faro Santander team, this painting is displayed alongside the iconic canvas Down Below, bringing together for the first time the only two paintings she created during that period in the city. 

The two works reveal the artist's symbolic universe, populated by hybrid creatures, fantastic animals and references to the occult, alchemy and personal transformation. The exhibition, organised in collaboration with the Freud Museum London, also includes original drawings from her sketchbooks, allowing us to understand the evolution of her artistic language during this period.